Kathy Temin
Audi­tions for a pair of koalas

Artist want­i­ng two peo­ple to be part of an instal­la­tion per­for­mance work. Ful­ly clothed in ani­mal cos­tumes, play­ing the scene of two koalas mat­ing in an indoor pub­lic art space. Audi­tions will befilmed. Week­ends for a peri­od of 6 weeks. Non-union per­form­ers. Pay. Begins mid March. Call Kathy. 718 349 2694

In 1998 I placed the above adver­tise­ment in ​‘Back­stage’ mag­a­zine and New York’s free week­ly ​‘The Vil­lage Voice’. I received 80 phone calls respond­ing to the adver­tise­ment. I returned everyone’s phone call and orga­nized audi­tions with 14 actors. Six of them were cou­ples, two audi­tioned on their own with the emp­ty koala suit on the floor, and the last two pairs were orga­nized accord­ing to coin­cid­ing sched­ules. With the excep­tion of one Aus­tralian, every­one was Amer­i­can and none had seen a koala in real life. They came to audi­tion in my then stu­dio at P.S.1 where I video­taped them so I had a record to help me decide who would be best for the parts. The final work Pet Cor­ner was a per­for­mance over six week­ends in March and April 1998 as part of P.S.1’s Wish you Luck exhibition.